Our health depends on our harmonious interaction with a multitude of bacteria.

A convincing argument is now being made that some of these microbes, far from threatening us, are welcome as essential allies. It is also because we need many of the alien organisms that live on and in us, including the billions of bacteria that live in our guts. This is not just because we don’t want to hurt our own tissue. The job of the immune system is to circulate through this wild party, keeping an eye out for troublemakers and then-this is key-tossing out bad guys while doing as little damage to other cells as possible. It’s a peacekeeping force that more than anything else seeks to create harmony. Drawing on extensive new interviews with dozens of world-renowned scientists, Richtel has produced a landmark book, equally an investigation into the deepest riddles of survival and a profoundly human tale that is movingly brought to life through the eyes of his four main characters, each of whom illuminates an essential facet of our 'elegant defense.'Īnd yet, for all these threats, the war metaphor is misleading, incomplete-even arguably dead wrong. Paradoxically, it is a fragile wonder weapon that can turn on our own bodies with startling results, leading today to epidemic levels of autoimmune disorders.Īn Elegant Defense effortlessly guides readers on a scientific detective tale winding from the Black Plague to twentieth-century breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to today's laboratories that are revolutionizing immunology-perhaps the most extraordinary and consequential medical story of our time.

For all its astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor nutrition-hallmarks of modern life-and even by excessive hygiene. It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats.

The immune system is our body's essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. Interweaving cutting-edge science with the intimate stories of four individual patients, this epic, first-of-its-kind book 'give lay readers a means of understanding what's known so far about the intricate biology of our immune systems' ( The Week ). The Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist 'explicates for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system' (Jerome Groopman, MD, New York Review of Books )įrom New York Times science journalist Matt Richtel, An Elegant Defense is an acclaimed and definitive exploration of the immune system and the secrets of health. An Elegant Defense left me with sense of awe.' -Bill Gates, Gates Notes Summer Reading List 'Gives you all the context you need to understand the science of immunity.

Matt richtel an elegant defense